Yippy skippy!

What a day. . .we met with a large dance studio today and they were very pleased with our work and want us to handle their photography for this year. This is very exciting for us. After using the same photographer for over 10 years, they switched last year and were not happy. Since we have built up our portfolio and our experience with large groups and dance schools, they seemed comfortable talking with us about their experience with the other photographers and about their needs.

So, after 1 1/2 months of calling and bugging the fool out of them, we were able to meet face to face and close the deal. Persistence is certainly your friend in sales!

To top it off, we had a very good portrait session today with a lovely family of 4. They were a young family with LOTS of energy, but we all had a great time. We're really adding to the portrait portfolio with this family, so we are going to open up that business next year. So far we really haven't gone after the portrait market, but Steve thinks he is ready now, and is very comfortable with session planning now. I'm going to school at The Light Factory beginning in December, so that will help as well on some of our bigger projects.

Steve and our partner have been kicking around some ideas on the digital signage stuff lately, so SteveD is coming down next week to work with Steve and a contact at the Bobcats, and some others from the Breakfast club. I hope they can get that going so that SteveD can help me with the lab sales. I'm a bit behind on signing up new photographers, but I hope to really catch up in New Orleans at the show.

I finally got the fliers done for the trade show, and the flier will also go out in the monthly checks to all of the PhotoReflect photographers. With that much "touch" we should get a few leads. . .I hope!

Funny thing that Steve did the other day. He was messing around with the order data from our website, and he sent out thank you emails to all of our October online customers. . .well that generated more sales on the website!! Very cool. He offered holiday cards, and several folks took us up on that offer.

This weekend is going to be quite busy. We have the Springmaid 5K, the Tread & Shred at Renaissance Park, and then it is the Christmas Tree lighting and Santa at Baxter Village. For the rest of this week, I'm working on a proposal for the White Water Training Center and getting all of my paperwork out of the way so that mom and I can go on our cruise. (I'm very excited about that!)

Just finished up a really cool book the other day. It was a very fast read, but I took my time with it. . .the book is called "My Naked Journey" and I was so impressed by it that I bought a copy for my best friend for Christmas. The trick will be to get Steve to read it. . .think I'll tell him it's porn, then maybe he'll take a look. . .heeheehee. Anyway, an excellent read. Guess I'll have to find something to read for the cruise. . .any recommendations, just let me know.

On a sad note, our poor kitty Thelma is very sick. She has been throwing up several times each day, so I took her to see Doc Willoughby. He had to sedate her, take some blood and also took a look at her teeth. It was quite sad. She has 2 loose teeth, and one that looks rotten and her gums are swollen. Not a good thing when you can't hold a toothbrush. Anyway, she is schedule for surgery next Wednesday, and for a 90 year old, this will be a big deal. After this she will have to switch to soft food, and we do hope that she recovers well. Doc seems to be doing well with all of his animals and kids. Was good to catch up with him and hear the latest on the robot that he is building. (MAC based at that!)

Well, that's all there is for now. . .hopefully my 1 reader will appreciate the effort. :-)